


Charafell - Part One: Red Halls

by Izzadora_Greenway



Series: Charafell [1]
Category: Underfell - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underfell, Female!Chara - Freeform, Gen, Not Really Character Death, Original Character Death(s), Swearing, i dunno, she dies but she resets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-07-29 08:02:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 13,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7676584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izzadora_Greenway/pseuds/Izzadora_Greenway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Curiosity killed the cat.<br/>And curiosity had killed Chara, too. Many times.<br/>But Chara had something that a cat didn’t.<br/>Chara had the ability to <em>come back.</em></p>
<p>-----------------------------------------</p>
<p>I plan for this to be only Part 1 of a <em>much</em> longer fic. It’s a bit of a slow build in terms of plot, but it’s a good introduction to the entire thing, and essential to several plot arcs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Piqued Interest

**Author's Note:**

> This started off just as a free-writing exercise and then grew into something a lot more. 
> 
> So this is my headcanon version of what Chara would be like in the Underfell AU.  
> Or, in other words; here’s an OC, I’ve given them a familiar name and toyed with a few key traits. Enjoy.  
> For compatibility’s sake, I’ve done a little switcheroony and made Frisk the first fallen child. So Chara's the eighth human to fall, and Frisk was Flowey's adopted sibling.
> 
> Also, this _is_ an Underfell fanfic, but it's based around my own impression of Underfell, so there's a few changes to the normal headcanons accepted for the AU. (But there's no major changes visible in Part 1, apart from Chara herself.)
> 
> Finally, I do not apologise for an edgyness that may come from this fic. It's Underfell. What else would you expect?

Well. This wasn’t what she’d planned.

The human squinted as she stared up above her, a hand shading her eyes from the sunlight that filtered down on her like a spotlight.

Call it wishful thinking, but when she’d discovered a hole in the ground that looked like it fell into a void, she’d _kind_ of been hoping for a hole in the ground that _actually_ fell into a void. Not some cushiony-arse flowerbed that could break the laws of physics. She was pretty sure her spine should be broken right now, but no, at most she’d been given a few cuts and bruises.

The girl huffed, then turned away from the skylight, peering at the surrounding cave. She couldn't see shit. Her eyes weren't adjusted to the dark.

She let herself flop over onto the flowerbed on her back, and once again it cushioned the blow of her fall. She tutted, then turned over on her front and rubbed her eyes. She paid no mind to the yellow flowers that she crushed as her elbows dug into the soil. How the hell did these things get water here, anyway?

The girl buried her eyes in her arms, black hair splaying across the golden flowers like a dark cloud smothering a sunrise.

So she was stuck in a cave. Well… it wasn't one of the quickest methods, but one she could make do with, she supposed. She rubbed her eyes into her sleeve, the leather not giving her much comfort, and she briefly lamented the cosiness of her old sleeping sweatshirt.

Then she remembered that she had eye makeup on.

She huffed a groan into her arm. “Well isn’t this just flipping _brilliant-?”_

“Howdy!”

The girl froze. Slowly, her eyes peered up from behind her arms.

Perched directly in front of her was a small, unassuming flower.

With a face.

It smiled lightly at her. “I-I’m Flowey! Flowey the Flower…”

A flower. That could talk. And _also had a face._

She blinked owlishly at the strange being, her eyes briefly scanning over it. A stem, no leaves. Golden petals. It definitely wasn’t there a moment ago. How the hell had it appeared in front of her?

When she looked back to its face, the smile was faltering. It’s eyes darted across her features. It didn’t make much eye contact.

“Hey...” She dragged out the word, caution slipping into her tone.

‘Flowey’ seemed to perk up at her response.

“Hey… I- I’ve never seen you around the underground before… A-Are you new?”

The underground? As in the cave they were in?

“Yeah, I’m new.” She mumbled into her sleeve. “What about it?”

“Uh…” The flower stilled. “W-Well, you see… uh…”

She gave it a flat look. Why the hell was this thing acting like she’d explode at any given moment? She knew that she didn’t exactly look… _inviting_ – and the soiled makeup probably wasn’t helping – but surely this thing could see that she had literally no desire to get up right now, let alone harm him.

“You’re, uh… you’re a human, aren’t you?”

A deadpan look fell over her face. “Yeah? And if looks are anything to go by, I’m gonna say that you’re _not_.”

“Yeah. I-I’m a monster.”

“Right.” She muttered under her breath. “Of course you are.”

“A-And, well… if you’re a human, I guess… I-I guess I should warn you…”

She raised an eyebrow. A small, uneven smile curled its way onto her mouth. This sounded interesting.

She perched her chin in her palms. “Warn me?”

The flower took a deep breath, looking away at the cave wall.

“…If you’re going to survive down here, you… you need to know a few things. There’s no other humans down here, and any humans that do fall down are…” He looked her way, and their gazes locked. “…hunted.”

She managed to stifle the smile that threatened to perk her lips further, but the spark that lit up in her eyes couldn’t be masked.

The flower’s face was grave, waned. Something haunting buried deep inside his eyes.

“In this world… it’s kill or be killed.”

She couldn’t stop it. The grin stretched her face as she chuckled. “Heh. Awesome.”

The flower’s brows – it didn’t even have eyebrows – furrowed, and it eyed her warily.

“Y-You’re not scared?”

“Why should I be?”

The flower looked stunned, and the girl merely smirked at him, chin resting on interlocked fingers.

“A-Aren’t you afraid of being killed?”

Her face was in shadow, the sunlight on her hair consumed by its dark colour. Rows of teeth glinted in a grin.

“Mate. Why do you think I jumped down here in the first place?”


	2. Butterscotch

How in the hell had she landed herself in this situation?

Chara tore her shoulder away from the paw’s grip and tried to wriggle her arms free.

“Oi! Let _go_ -”

“Do not fuss, my child! This is for your own good!”

The paw clamped squarely back onto her shoulder. Both her hands were held behind her back, kept in place by a knitted scarf. The goat lady’s grip on her arm kept it locked there.

The moment Flowey’d heard the sound of the goat-woman’s voice, he’d quickly thrown in the towel and burrowed himself under the ground. Chara had been left staring at the disturbed earth in mild shock, only started out of her confusion when a fireball engulfed the soil.

Then she’d looked up, and out of nowhere she had a strange demonic goat lady fussing over her hair.

And now she was being taken to her house. Apparently.

Chara had quickly realised that when the flower had said ‘in this world’, he hadn’t been exaggerating. There was literally a world down here. A whole community – hell, a _society_ – of monsters, alive and kicking under the soil of Mount Ebbot.

Chara grunted, trying to tug her arm free, but she was merely ushered forward once again.

“So let me get this straight.” The weird, devilish frog creatures that appeared along the corridors glared at her as she twisted to look over her shoulder. “ _This_ is what you call hospitality.”

The goat-woman’s eyes were yellowed, musty. There was a feverish smile on her face that made goosebumps crawl up Chara’s arms.

She cooed, and Chara grimaced.

“Oh poor, sweet, innocent youth-”

“ _I’m sixteen-_ ”

“-being tortured by that pesky flower like that.”

Chara’s eyes narrowed. _Pesky?! The thing had been shaking in his metaphorical boots!_

“You do not have to fear, my child. I will protect you. I won’t let any harm come to you.”

There was something absolute in the woman’s words. Chara felt herself edged onwards once again, but she kept her gaze aimed over her shoulder.

She looked directly into the woman’s eyes. “Protect me from _what?_ ”

Chara sensed a sombre change in the woman’s voice. The gentle – if slightly erratic – light in her eyes seemed to dampen.

“My child… there are other monsters out there. Other monsters who will stop at nothing to kill a human.” Her grip on Chara’s arm tightened. “I cannot let them hurt you.”

“Why not?”

The goat woman stopped, her eyes widening in shock. Chara kept her eyes steely.

“No more questions. Come on now, don’t dawdle!”

She was roughly pushed forward.

Chara didn’t look back over her shoulder. She stopped struggling to get her arms free.

Muttering under her breath, a dry chuckle escaped her throat. “Kill or be killed, huh? Sounds right up my alley.”

~oOo~

It was official.

Toriel was actually insane.

At first she thought that she might’ve just been one of those… odd people. A person with an odd sense of humour. Or an odd mind-set. An odd look on life and its problems. But no.

She was a complete and utter nutcase.

Chara had spent precisely five minutes plastering on fake smiles and humouring her hysterical motherly demeanour. It wasn’t in her nature to be polite. Or even vaguely _tolerable_ of anyone that tried to restrict her freedom. But the woman had literally baked her five different pies – each with its own new and disturbing flavour – and so she felt like she owed her.

That is, until Toriel insisted that she take a look at – and maybe even wear – some crummy blue sweater that looked like it’d been left to the wrath of a thousand moths. She didn’t have much shame, but she had standards. So, she’d blown her top. And in response? Toriel had snapped.

Between her and the goat-woman they’d nearly managed to shout the house out of its foundations. And then she’d been locked in the bathroom, and was still ransacking the cabinets for bobby pins. She didn’t do well when she was stuck in a small space. She needed the freedom to move around at her will. She hated being constricted in any way shape or form, and for _fuck’s sake why were there no bobby pins here?_

Chara pushed aside different bottles and packaging from under the sink, until she could see the back wall of the cupboard.

She could smell a new aroma seeping in from under the bathroom door that was, no doubt, another ridiculous flavour of pie. She could also vaguely hear Toriel humming to herself, as if they _hadn’t_ just been metaphorically clawing at each other’s throats.

Well, metaphorically in her case. In Toriel’s case, some of the living room carpet was now charred black.

This was not cool.

Locked in a psychotic demon-goat-woman’s bathroom, in some messed up world that was buried under a mountain.

Chara dragged her hands through her hair, groaning in frustration and throwing her arms up. No bobby pins. She felt like she could _kick_ the door down at this rate, hinges and all.

She turned away from the cabinets and caught sight of her face in the mirror.

Somehow, she looked even more disturbing than usual. A few streaks of black lipstick were smeared outwards from her mouth, and her eyeshadow had smudged a lot. It was enough to make her eyes look hollowed, but luckily not enough to make her look like a panda. Her hair had a few stray leaves caught in it. She idly picked them out, contemplating her eyes.

It wasn’t too far from her usual look, actually. When it came to makeup she had a tendency to be overdramatic. But she honestly couldn’t be bothered to fix it. Not right now. She liked to stand out in her appearance, but considering the circumstances, she probably wouldn’t need redone makeup to achieve that.

Besides, she didn’t have her makeup with her. And she would much rather walk out with soiled makeup than walk out bare. She could hardly remember what her normal eyes looked like anymore.

Chara took a deep breath, closing her eyes.

…What the actual hell was going on? Was all of this real or some weird hallucinogenic dream? It felt real. The sink she was leaning on felt solid. But, now that she was left with only her memories to indicate that anything was out of the ordinary, those memories seemed far too surreal.

A talking flower? Really?

Chara opened her eyes.

She looked back over to the door.

Either way, she was in a stranger’s bathroom. And she wanted out.

She unzipped the inner-pocket of her leather jacket, and frowned when she saw her phone’s screen was cracked. She fiddled with it momentarily, the screen lighting up. It still worked. Good. That was all she needed.

The smell of pie invaded her senses. She wasn’t planning to go very far. She just wanted to explore the rest of this world. Wanted to approach some of those frog monsters, see if they could talk as well. See if they’d really kill her on sight.

Chara glanced back to the bathroom door, eyeing it cautiously.

She’d seen her uncle break down a door once.

A few minutes later, Toriel jolted. The human’s pie slice fell to the carpet when she heard a loud, crunching thud sound from the bathroom door. Not but moments later, a foot had cracked a hole in the wood, and was quickly retracted. Thumps and loud cursing joined in a cacophony of noise as Toriel slowly got to her knees. Then hands were pulling apart the splintering wood.

Chara managed to stumble precisely three paces away from the door before she felt her body enveloped in searing heat. She tensed as something ignited in her chest. Her vision went black.


	3. Flowerbed

Chara opened her eyes. Her lungs weren’t doing anything, but for some reason, the normal instinctual panic had washed away from her body. Ahead of her she could see nothing but darkness, but it wasn’t smothering. She didn’t feel blind. She felt like she was staring into the void…

She’d died, hadn’t she?

She’d seen the fireball from the corner of her eye. She’d been burnt alive.

So this was the afterlife, huh? Seemed a little anticlimactic.

Then again, she’d never really believed in an afterlife before.

Chara looked down, and she could see her hands, her legs, her body, all hovering in the darkness. She felt like she was being affected by gravity, but she couldn’t feel any surface underneath her feet.

She stared down at the darkness underneath her.

…This couldn’t be _it_ -

Chara gasped. She dropped like a stone. The darkness was rushing up from under her feet and it wasn’t stopping. She could feel something within her – not her body, but  
something else – being pulled outwards and away from the black.

She clung on.

She pinned her own essence to the darkness, holding on tightly, suspending herself.

She wanted answers. She didn’t know what was going on but before she went _anywhere_ she wanted answers and she wanted them _now_.

Slowly, fuzzy words started to appear in front of her. The tighter she held on, the clearer they became.

She could see a vague image of Toriel’s house fading in amongst the black, but what stood out the most were the two pieces of text, bright white.

_Continue_ , and _Reset_.

Chara blinked, staring at the words.

…She had to choose one? She could guess that ‘Continue’ would let her continue with whatever the hell had been about to happen when she’d felt herself falling away … but ‘Reset’? She had no clue.

The sensible thing to do would be Continue. At least then she would be able to prepare herself for what was about to happen. She didn’t know where she would be taken. But at least she knew she was being taken somewhere. The Reset option, on the other hand, was a wild card.

Chara looked over the word. _Continue_.

Then glanced back to _Reset_.

Then back to _Continue_.

She pursed her lips.

Oh fuck it.

Chara threw a hand towards _Reset_.

Something buzzed around her heart. She tasted copper on her teeth.

Chara gasped as gravity came into full effect once again and she felt herself fall away from the darkness and the words. Her vision went blindingly white.

~oOo~

Chara started awake.

Her eyes flew wide open, only for them to clamp shut once again as they were assaulted by a searing, bright light.

She grimaced, shielding her eyes with her arm.

_Sunlight?_

Her free hand felt around to discern what she was lying on. Her fingers trailed over something delicate and smooth. Her heart sank down to her stomach.

_Petals._

She turned her head to the side, glancing over her shoulder. Golden flowers.

…She was on the flowerbed again.

Chara rolled over onto her front, staring wide eyed at the golden petals between her fingertips.

Her foot didn’t hurt anymore. Her body felt… fine. Maybe a little bruised, but otherwise fine. Not scorched. Or charred. Or even slightly singed by the fire that had been eating at her flesh before.

She _should_ be dead right now. For the second time that day, she should _definitely_ be dead right now.

Her mind travelled back to the void. The words.

_Reset_.

Chara looked up at the surrounding cave.

Had she… had she sent herself back? To the point right after she’d fallen into the underground? Or had Toriel taken her back here?

She closed her eyes.

A small gasp escaped her lips as she recognised the darkness behind her eyelids.

She opened her eyes again. She saw the flowerbed. She closed her eyes? She was _staring into the void_.

If she willed it hard enough, the words faded back into view.

Continue and Reset.

She almost felt compelled to reach out for Reset again, just to see what would happen…

“Ch-Chara?”

Her eyes snapped open.

Flowey was directly in front of her. He stared at her, something akin to bewilderment overtaking his features.

“How… What happened?”

Chara pursed her lips. “I… _think_ I just reset my life.”

“What- your _life?!_ What do you mean!?”

“Honestly?” She hefted herself up to her knees. “I have no fucking idea. But… I know I did _something_. And now I’m back.”

Flowey looked down, pursing his lips. “And I’m back too…”

Chara paused. She gave Flowey a look.

“Well yeah, but… you came here of your own accord, right?”

The flower stilled. His eyes connected with hers, then he glanced away.

“Um… kind of? I, uh… well, one minute I was in the Ruins, trying to find you, the next I was…” He made a vague gesture with his head. “…back over there.”

Chara looked over her shoulder. She only saw the rest of the cave, cast in shadows. She glanced back to Flowey, narrowing her eyes.

He looked down. “That’s… where I was when I first saw you fall.”

Chara’s eyes widened. “You _saw_ me fall?”

“Yeah… I- I didn’t want to approach you straight away because- because I thought you might be… I thought…”

If he had hands, Chara could picture him fidgeting like there was no end. Instead, however, he was glancing around the cave, avoiding Chara’s gaze altogether.

She raised an eyebrow. “…You were scared I’d kill you?”

Flowey pursed his lips. He closed his eyes and nodded.

She leaned back on her hands, chuckling lightly at the flower.

“I’m not a killer, Flowey. I don’t know how this messed up world of yours works, but I don’t kill. Probably couldn’t if I wanted to.”

Flowey still wouldn’t meet her gaze.

She frowned slightly. “What? Still don’t trust me?”

His gaze snapped back up to her, and she saw small seeds of guilt start to emerge within his eyes.

“I just…” He sighed. “Chara, the only way to survive here is by killing or fleeing. That’s… that’s why I always run away. So I won’t have to fight anyone. But… even I know you can’t run forever.”

He fixed her with a pointed look.

“At one time or another, you’re going to have to resort to it. There’s no other options here. You either kill… or you die.”

The flower’s stem had increasingly become more hunched as the words left his mouth, until he was nearly curled over himself.

Chara tutted. “Well, alright. Guess I’ll just have to continue being lucky until I inenvitably die. What makes you think I’d kill?”

His gaze flicked up and onto her clothes, and he seemed to eye her warily.

“You dress… an awful lot like most of the monsters here.” At this, something lit up in Chara’s eyes. “Leather, black and red… Is this what humans dress like normally?”

The girl smiled to herself. “No. It’s not. I’m kind of a special case.”

“Why?”

She shrugged airily. “I like standing out.”

Neither of them continued the conversation after that. Chara didn’t much care about the silence, and simply took to lying back in the sun, whilst Flowey stewed in thought. Chara had her arms behind her head, a contented smile on her face.

Flowey spoke up.

“I’m… I’m sorry for leaving you earlier.”

Chara cracked open an eye.

“I… shouldn’t have abandoned you.”

Chara felt her heart sink a little. She looked over to see that Flowey was facing away from her.

“I just- I got scared, and- I always try to avoid Toriel because she seems to really hate me, but, I- it wasn’t right of me to leave you like that. I’m sorry…”

Despite her own will, Chara’s eyes softened. She rolled onto her side, propping her head up with her hand.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not mad… Well, I was pissed back then, but being dragged through the Ruins taught me something.”

Flowey blinked, daring to glance up at her. “It did?”

“Yeah, it taught me that there _is_ a Ruins! I would’ve just sat here in this cave if you didn’t let Toriel take me, never knowing that there’s an entire set of _catacombs_ through that door! All underneath this one mountain! It’s pretty cool.”

A smile perked the flower’s lips. Seeing this, Chara settled back underneath the sun, closing her eyes.

“Chara? Just to say… there’s _much_ more than merely the Ruins underneath Mount Ebbot.”

Chara paused. “What?-”

Someone gasped. It wasn’t Flowey. And it certainly wasn’t her.

Both the girl and the flower whipped around to look at the doorway that led out of the cavern. Toriel stood with her hands over her mouth, yellow, frenzied eyes wide.

“Human child, please! Get away from that wretched flower! He will harm you!”

Flowey’s face paled.

Chara’s eyes bugged out. “Ah… shit.”


	4. Here We Go Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I managed to miss posting for two days, so instead take three chapters at once.

She was being hauled off by the arm again. Toriel hurridly ushered her towards the red doorway with startling speed whilst Flowey stared in at them in horror. Chara paid Toriel’s hysteric rambling no mind, taking the time to offer the flower a hopeful grin.

“Hey, at least she didn’t try to kill you this ti-!”

Chara was promptly shoved forward and out of sight.

Flowey flinched at the bang as the door slammed shut. 

He breathed shallowly. He was the only thing that remained in the shadow of the cavern.

He felt incredibly alone.

~oOo~

Chara grunted as she was pushed forward, her hands, once again, tied behind her back.

“Hey, y’know- You don’t have to be so rough, I know where I’m going-”

“My child, please do not protest. This is for your own good. I am not here to harm you.”

Chara glanced over shoulder, giving the goat-demon a flat look. “ _Clearly._ ”

She was shoved forward again.

“You must understand, my child.” Toriel started. Her eyes were twitching left and right. “There are monsters out there – monsters who will not hesitate to kill you.” Her faltering grin became sour, but only for a moment. “I am merely trying to protect you.”

Chara raised an eyebrow at her. “ _Ri-i-ight_ , yeah, okay, sure, listen. I can look after myself just fine. I’ve been doing a surprisingly good job at _not_ dying so far.”

_Well, not staying dead, anyway._

Chara tried to gauge the woman’s reaction, but didn’t see anything other than of her frantic eyes.

She looked forward, her gaze caught by the sight of those weird devilish frog creatures. This time, she glared back at them.

“Look, my point is, I can survive by myself, okay? I am _capable_ of doing that. So… mind letting me go?”

Toriel’s features creased, and she stopped walking, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. When she opened them again, a gentle smile had stretched across her face.

“I’m afraid I cannot. I will not allow anyone else to die by my hands.”

Chara snorted. “Yeah, you’re doin’ a _real_ good job at that.”

Toriel kept the smile plastered to her face. “I don’t understand what you mean by that, my child.”

Chara chuckled to herself as she walked onwards through the deep red corridors. “Sheesh, woman. You really _are_ cuckoo, aren’t you?”

She glanced back at Toriel over her shoulder, and she was surprised by the lack of a smile on her face. She looked straight into the goat-woman’s eyes. The frenzied twitches were nowhere in sight.

Chara curiously peered into the orbs. “…The hell _happened_ to you, to make you end up like this?”

Toriel kept her face defiant. She ushered Chara forward again, and Chara complied. They walked in silence for a few moments, before Toriel spoke.

“I know… I can be overprotective sometimes.” Chara bit back the retort resting at the edge of her tongue. She listened intently. “But… I don’t believe I am crazy.”

Chara had to phsycally stop herself from scoffing out loud. She let her mind wander over the woman’s words, deciding to take her seriously, just for now. Chara looked straight ahead without really seeing anything, her lips pursed in a thin line. The words that slipped from of her mouth were so quiet, they were almost non-existent.

“Crazy’s not always a bad thing, you know…”

Chara didn’t see it, but in that moment, a small, genuine smile settled over Toriel’s features.

~oOo~

They had just arrived at Toriel’s house when Flowey appeared in amongst the red leaves piled around the garden.

A grin lit up Chara’s face at the sight of him.

“Ah, Flowey! How nice of you to drop in-!”

She was promptly silenced as Toriel threw her aside in her haste.

Her shoulder hit the ground, but she didn’t give much thought to it as she quickly loosened the scarf around her wrists. She looked up to see Toriel advancing on the flower, her  
yellowed eyes ablaze with animosity. Fire crackled in her palm. Flowey shrunk back as he watched her raise her arm, the orange magic swirling around her fingers.

Chara scrambled up to her feet, but couldn’t gain her balance fast enough to make it before a fireball was shot in Flowey’s direction.

The flower disappeared into the ground as the fireball made contact with the soil. He popped up at the other side of the garden, behind Chara. He glanced up at her, eyes wide, stem shaking. She flashed him a grin, before looking back to Toriel. The goat-demon turned on them both, eyes wild and strikingly _red_. She bared her teeth, and Chara found herself backpedalling until she was beside the flower.

“Well. At least she hates us both now.” Flowey shot her glare.

They both jumped, yelping in surprise at the firebolt that narrowly missed Flowey’s stem. He burrowed under the earth as another fireball was shot inches above where his head  
had been.

Toriel’s enraged shriek echoed around the cavern’s walls.

“ _Stay away from that human!_ ”

Chara saw him resurface on the other side of the garden again. Toriel followed her gaze, then started to stalk back towards the trembling flower.

Chara groaned into her hands, closing her eyes. The words hovered before her in the darkness. Chara’s fingers tensed. An idea started to formed in her head. Her eyes snapped open.

She’d sprinted between the flower and the woman before Toriel had enough magic to summon her fireball again. She held up her hands, more to try and sustain some sort of distance between them than to pacify the enraged goat.

Chara looked her dead in the eyes. “Look, Toriel. Calm down, alright?”

Toriel paused, and her eyes widened, the red seeping away. Chara suppressed the smile that threatened to spill over her features.

“How… How do you know my name?”

Chara grinned.

“I’m psychic like that. Now, ah, where were you? Trying to murder us?”

Toriel gaped at her, then her eyes narrowed dangerously. They slowly turned red again. Fire magic crackled and fizzed in both of her hands now. Flowey whirled to Chara in an instant.

“Chara! What- What are you _doing?!_ ”

Her eyes snapped to the flower. She gave him a pointed look.

“Just trust me.”

Flowey huffed derisively. “Trust _you?_ The human with a death wish?”

A smirk spread across her face. “Yeah, why not? You’ve got nothing better to do.”

Flowey looked forward once again, to the goat-woman with the fire roaring in her hands. She took a step forward.

He sucked in a sharp breath. “Yeah okay I trust you what’s the plan?”

“No plan.” Chara’s grin widened as she focused on the fireball swirling in Toriel’s hands. “I just wanna try out something.”

Flowey’s mouth slacked. “You _what?!_ ”

He didn’t have time to stop Chara before she dived in front of the two fireballs aimed squarely at him. He didn’t have time to yell or shout before her disintegrating body hit the  
ground.

He did, however, have time to glance up.

Toriel’s eyes were wide and her paws flew to cover her mouth. She stared as the fire consumed Chara’s body. Her arms shook.

The world around him went dark, and Flowey was left with only one thought in his mind.

She’d hit the wrong target.


	5. It’s Definitely Magic

Chara opened her eyes. She was immediately blinded by sunlight.

She quickly squeezed them closed, breathing in deeply and letting her hands trail along the petals. Her lips stretched in a wide smile.

It had _worked_.

She heard a rustle of soil beside her, but didn’t bother to turn towards it, bathing in the sunlight.

“What… the _heck_ …”

She tried to stifle the snigger, without much success. She glanced over at Flowey, then rolled onto her forearms. He gaped at her. She leaned her chin on her palm and gave him a lazy smile.

“You-! _You_ -!”

“S’up.”

“You _died!_ ”

“Yep.”

“And you’re _alive!_ ”

“Yep.”

“And we’re _both back here!_ ”

“Again, yeah.”

Flowey stared at her incredulously. “ _How?!_ ”

She shrugged. “I dunno. Magic.”

He gave her a flat look.

Chara sniggered. “Okay, okay, I’ll explain. So remember how last time we ended up here, I said I thought I’d reset my life and we kinda left it at that?”

Flowey eyed her warily. “Yeah…”

“Turns out I’m resetting more than just my life.”

Flowey’s non-existent eyebrows raised, and his head tilted at an angle. “What do you mean?”

Chara pursed her lips. She lent towards him on her forearms, as if to tell him something confidential, but didn’t bother to bring her voice level down.

“I think I’m resetting time. I keep on sending us back to this specific moment, right after I fell down, over and over again. Putting us back at square one. Even if I die, I can bring us back here.”

Something lit up in Chara’s eyes, and a grin flashed across her face.

“Flowey, I’m practically _immortal_ -”

Flowey stopped her.

“W-Well, okay, just _hold on_ a minute.” He paused, and Chara waited, legs kicking in the air behind her. “Y-You’re jumping to conclusions here. How do we know this isn’t just another monster’s doing? Or what if Toriel brought you back here and somehow revived you?”

“If that’s true, then how come she was freaked out when I knew her name?” Flowey pursed his lips, and Chara offered him an impish smile. “ _And_ , more to the point, _look up_.”

Flowey’s brows knitted. He gave her a look, before squinting into the sunlight. “What? I don’t see anything.”

“Apart from the sunlight, right?”

“Of course.”

“ _Exactly!_ ”

Flowey jumped at the sudden volume. His eyes snapped down to the girl. She was grinning from ear to ear.

“The sun’s directly over the opening, isn’t it?”

“…Yeah?”

“It was in the _exact same position_ the first time I woke up.”

He stared at her blankly. Then, slowly, his eyes began to widen.

“Going by your logic, it’s been at least an hour or two since I first woke up. That sun shouldn’t still be directly above us, should it? But it is.”

Chara’s smile only widened as she saw realisation settle over the flower’s face.

“Why I’m never injured after being killed. Why the sunlight’s always in my eyes. Why Toriel never remembers meeting me before. Resetting time. It’s crazy, but it _makes sense_.”

Flowey blinked owlishly, almost unable to comprehend what was leaving the girl’s mouth.

“But- But- It _doesn’t_ make sense! Why would you suddenly wake up with a power like that?!”

Chara shrugged. “I dunno, I just kinda figured – magical world, magical powers, y’know?”

Flowey stared at her in exhasperation. “That’s not how it works!”

“Well in that case, I got nothing.”

Flowey groaned. “ _Chara_ -”

“Look, Flowey. Work with me here. I can’t think of any other theory that makes anymore sense. I’m just going based off what I’ve seen of this world. And so far, I’ve experienced demon-goat women, fire magic, and talking sentient flowers. My perception of fiction and reality is _completely_ skewered right now. And honestly? I’m fine with that. Even if it means that right now, time-resets make more sense to me than anything else.”

Flowey stared at the girl.

She had a genuine smile adorning her face, and her eyes shimmered brightly from the sunlight.

“Flowey… if these powers _are_ real, then they are a bloody _blessing_. And I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth just because of a little something called logic.”

Flowey looked away at the cavern walls, his lips pursed. He sighed in defeat.

“…Alright. Fine. So you can reset time. What now?”

Chara pushed herself to her feet. “Now, we leave before Toriel can drag my arse back to her house again.”

She started to trot towards the doorway. Flowey appeared from the soil in front of it.

“Chara-! _Wait_. Without Toriel you’ll be _killed_ out there!”

“So?” She gave the Flower an impish grin. “S’not like I’ll be dead for long.”

Flowey grumbled. “Why do you even want to go out there? You won’t be able to have a friendly chat with the neighbours, if that’s what you’re going for. Everyone’s already trying to kill each other – they won’t hesitate to kill you too.”

Flowey watched Chara open the dark crimson door and peer out into the hallway. She’d never had the chance to take a good look around whilst Toriel was dragging her to and fro. Now that she had the time, she noticed that the walls were a particularly disturbing shade of red.

“What is it with you monsters and your grudge against humans?” She glanced back to Flowey, a playful smirk dancing on her lips.

Flowey only glared at her, before shaking his head. “You didn’t answer my question. What’s the point in going out there if all you’ll get is hostility?”

“You keep saying that, but until I see it for myself, I’m not gonna believe you.” Flowey tutted, and a light smile teased Chara’s lips. “Besides, you said there was more to this ‘underground’ than just the Ruins, right?”

“…Yeah? So?”

“ _So_ , I wanna see it.”

Flowey paused. “What- What do you mean you wanna _see it?_ ”

“Flowey, I’m new to your world, remember? If I’m stuck down here, might as well see the sights!”

Flowey muttered under his breath.“Yes, because being chased around by a hoard of monsters sounds like a _very_ appealing tourist attraction.” Chara rolled her eyes. “Look, if you want to run around the underground being attacked by every monster that comes your way, fine, but I actually _value_ my life.”

Chara smiled at the cynical flower.

“Come on, Flowey. I can’t have a tour without a tour guide.”

She offered him a hopeful smile.

Flowey narrowed his eyes, then took to glaring at the wall. Chara let the door close, facing him and crossing her arms. She kept her gaze pointed at him.

He sighed. “You… really want me to go with you?”

“Of course.”

“Why?”

Chara stopped.

Flowey glanced up at her, eyes meeker than she was used to seeing. Chara felt an ache in her chest that came too quickly for her to suppress.

“Well… every adventurer needs an unwilling sidekick, don’t they?”

Flowey gave her a look. A small smile started to crawl onto his face. He shook his head.

“You’re gonna get us both killed.”

Chara grinned. “Yep. That’s the idea! Never ending cycle, until _I_ get bored or _you_ get sick of me.”

“No, no, you’re right.” Flowey interrupted. “We both remember the other reset… reality things. We should stick together.”

She couldn’t stop the genuine smile from spreading across her face.

“Awesome.” She placed her hands on the door. “Well… here goes nothing.”

She gave it a hefty shove, and the door swung.

It only opened a foot before there was a loud bang as it hit something on the other side.

There was an ear-splitting screech. The door swung back and shut in their faces.

Chara blinked, wide eyed at the red wood that had landed inches before her nose. There was scuffling and irritable, very familiar muttering coming from the other side of the door.

She glanced over to the flower to see him as white as a sheet.

“Reset?”

Flowey flinched as another shriek reached his ears. “Yes please oh god quickly-!”


	6. Trial and Error

_~3 Deaths: All via Fireball~_

There was only a beat before Chara pushed herself up from the flowerbed.

“Okay, this time, we leave _before_ she gets here.”

Flowey nodded, and watched Chara saunter towards the red-wood door, pushing it open with the gusto of a game show host. She leaned out, hand holding into the door frame.

“Coast is clear.” Chara swung back and looked at him. There was a familiar spark in her eyes. She vaguely reminded Flowey of a little kid sneaking out of their parents’ house for the first time.

There was a shuffle of soil, and Flowey appeared at her side.

“First, we should find a different route to the one Toriel took, so we don’t run into-”

Flowey was interrupted by the sound of Chara’s boots scuffling across the cave floor. When he looked up he saw her kicking about the scarlet leaves between the two staircases, like a five year old.

She stopped when she noticed him giving her a deadpan stare. She chuckled gingerly.

“What? Leaves are cool, okay, don’t judge me.”

_~5 Deaths: 3 via Fireball, 2 via Spike Trap~_

“You remember the pattern this time, right Chara?”

Flowey called from behind the girl, as they both overlooked the long pathway of spikes before them. The flower sat with an uneasy expression on his face.

“Yeah, sure, don’t worry!” Chara exclaimed. “I have it memorised now. Third time’s the charm, am I right?”

_~6 Deaths: 3 via Fireball, 3 via Spike Trap~_

“It said only take one piece of candy, and what do you do?”

Flowey’s expression was the epitome of ‘I-am-so-done-with-everything’. He looked over the fallen pedestal, sweets strewn across the cavern floor.

“Look - there’s two of us, and you don’t have arms! I was just being thoughtful.”

Chara gestured with her hands in emphasis. There were at least four sweets stuffed into each of her jacket’s pockets.

Flowey gave her a flat glare, then huffed. “Why do I hang out with you again?”

Chara smirked. “Because I’m the fun one. Now c’mon, there’s a pile of leaves out there calling my name.”

~oOo~

“Whoa- Hey, what the _fuck?!_ ”

The first froggit she’d come across had _talked_ to her – albeit begrudgingly, and with an expression that, in her opinion, made it look like it was constipated. But still! At least it’d  
talked to her!

Chara narrowly sidestepped some more of the magically-created flies that came hurtling her way.

What’s more, her chest had started to feel _off_. Like her heart had been miraculously turned into a phone that was set on vibrate. And someone was bored and sending her those annoying-as-fuck singular word text messages.

“Hey-” She twisted her body and the flies whizzed behind her back. “ _Okay_ , Mr Frog Guy, why don’t we calm down and have a conversation?”

The frog sneered at her. She didn’t even know frogs _could_ sneer. She tutted, then ducked before another batch of flies could hit her head.

She had been too preoccupied with dodging to notice the lack of Flowey’s voice bouncing around the cavern. Initially he had been shouting half-panicked, not-at-all-helpful tips at her. But now, silence.

Whens she turned again, she caught a glimpse the flower’s wide and pivoted towards him – leaning back just in time to let more flies race past her stomach. Her gaze snapped to him, and his eyes trailed up to lock onto hers.

He looked like he’d seen a ghost.

She felt something collide into her arm.

From the intense buzzing in her chest, her imaginary friend had just started to send her an essay. She saw the residue of something like coloured mist dissipate into the air around her arm – which she could only guess were the flies – and then noticed a faint red light coming from behind her leather jacket.

She looked down at her chest.

“What. The _fuck_.”

There was a heart-shaped… _thing_ shining through, as if she had a bright red neon sign underneath her t-shirt. And she realised with a start that it was the source of the buzzing.

She looked up to Flowey.

“Alright. Explain. _Now_.”

_~7 Deaths: 3 via Fireball, 3 via Spike Trap, 1 via Froggit~_

“Okay, if every human and monster has a soul, and it’s a natural, core part of them, how come I wasn’t aware of mine for _sixteen years of my goddamn life?_ ”

Flowey huffed a sigh. Chara had firmly sat her butt down on the pile of red leaves just outside the pedestal room, and refused to move until he told her everything he knew about souls.

“I guess because you never encountered magic on the surface? Souls are a magical essence, it makes sense that humans wouldn’t be able to feel them without it.”

Chara’s arms hung loosely from her knees. “And the fact that it’s red makes me special?”

“The fact that it’s coloured at all means you’re human. Which, in this world, makes you an _outcast_.” Flowey corrected pointedly.

She rolled her eyes. “Right. So when a monster attacks me with magic, they’re going for my soul, _not_ my body. Gotcha.”

“But their attacks can _still_ hurt your physical form.” The flower warned. “But, yes, they’re aiming for your soul, because that’s what their magic effects the most. Every time your soul gets hit, it’s energy gets whittled down a little bit, until it’s broken apart and… well, you die.”

Chara furrowed her eyebrows. “Is this all common knowledge down here or something?”

“Pretty much.”

She leaning back on her palms. “Damn… I am… horribly uneducated when it comes to this magical shizzle wizzle, aren’t I?”

Flowey gave her a flat look. “You don’t say.”

She smirked. “Oi.”

A small, mocking smile appeared on his face. “It’s true. It’s cringeworthy, how new you are at all of this.”

She shifted so that she was kneeling, and ungraciously patted him on the head before standing up. “And that’s why I have you.”

She grinned when she saw the irritable glower on his face.


	7. Apparitions and Arachnids

Chara hadn’t been able to wipe the smile off her face for the last five minutes. Flowey looked utterly done with the entire situation, and was giving her a vicious glare that didn’t help to dampen her mood in the slightest.

She stood, hand partially covering her mouth, as she watched the strange, black ghost monster repeatedly say the letter ‘Z’ out loud over and over again.

Its eyes were closed, but it clearly wasn’t sleeping. Unless it was sleep talking. And it’s dreams were filled with ‘Z’s…

The ghost monster hadn’t been here the last two times she’d come through. Then again, Toriel had been with her then. She briefly wondered if the other monsters in the Ruins were scared of her.

Chara focused on the black-ghost-thing, lying down in a pile of the same red leaves she’d come to love kicking around in so much. She didn’t want to disturb it, but there was no other way to get through to the next chamber.

Chara paused.

It had opened one eye. It was peering at her, analytical.

She blinked, staring back.

It growled.

The suspicion she had that it was, indeed, a ghost, was confirmed as she saw the monster slowly lift itself up, until its black, whispy form was floating above the leaves. Its eyes and mouth were the same crimson as the walls. It snarled at her, eyeing her up and down.

She glanced over to Flowey from the corner of her eyes and saw his stem shaking.

She cleared her throat.

“Uh. Hey Mr… Ghost… guy- Okay, firstly, what’s your name?”

The whisps of red that made up a mouth sharpened into pointed teeth. They snapped shut, baring.

“Okay, so not a first-name-basis kinda guy, alright then.” Chara sturdily swallowed down any of the unease that had come out of her throat. “So, uh, we just kinda wanted to get through to over there.” She pointed behind it. “So if you cou-”

An animlistic screech assaulted her ears.

The noise was thrown across the walls and rebounded back at them from all directions and her hands flew to her hears. The teeth wew inches from her face and gnashing and snapping and filling her vision with black and red.

The shriek pierced her ears as it rang out into a wail of words.

“ L E A V E ! ”

Her ears felt like they were bleeding.

“ M E ! ”

Her bared teeth vibrated painfully.

_“_ _A L O N E !_ ”

The black mist dissipated into nothing. The wail echoed out into the halls and left them alone with the silence.

Chara slowly lowered her hands, staring ahead, eyes as wide as saucers. Her mouth hung open, a metallic taste lingering on her tongue. Her chest laboured to get her breathing back to normal.

She glanced over to Flowey. His teeth were chattering.

She looked back in front of herself, and blinked owlishly into the next room. The leaves were untouched.

“Well… that escalated quickly.”

~oOo~

“No, wait!”

Chara’s hand paused mid-way through the air. She blinked at the small cobweb on the wall, then turned around.

Flowey gaped at her.

“What do you think you’re _doing?!_ ”

Chara looked at him for a moment, then glanced back at the cobweb – which had a few nicely decorated donuts sitting on top of it – and shrugged.

“It… said there was a bakesale, so I just kinda figured…”

“You can’t just _take_ one!”

“…Why not? I’ve got the gold for it, that Whimsum practically threw it at me.”

“ _Chara_ -” Flowey sighed out through his teeth. “How many times do I have to tell you? In this world, it’s kill or be killed. You can’t trust _anyone_. How do you know this isn’t a trap? How do you know those donuts aren’t poisoned?”

Chara pursed her lips. “I don’t. But I can find out and be back in like two ticks if you like.”

Flowey groaned as the girl plucked a donut from the web. She left five gold pieces in its place.

“Chara, this… ugh. Dying over and over again. It has to have _some_ consequences. It can’t be that easy.”

Chara pushed herself up to her feet. “Well, I’ve not seen any so far. And besides, I’m resetting time. How can there possibly be any consequences if everything we did before never  
happened?”

Flowey rolled his eyes. Chara smiled, then tore a bite into the donut.

Her mouth paused.

Flowey cringed as chewed dough and purple icing was spat back out onto the cavern floor.

“Yep. _Definitely_ mercury.” Chara gaged a little and flapped her hands near her open mouth, her nose crinkling in disgust. “Oh god, and a bit of chlorine as well- the fuck were they _planning to do?_ ”

Flowey gave her a flat look. “ _Kill you?_ ”

Chara wiped her mouth on her sleeve. She felt a small portion of her soul wilter, but thought nothing of it. Shaking her head, she looked at the donut. “Then why the chlorine? That stuff’s for knocking people out.”

She regarded the offending baked good for a moment, then shrugged and let it drop to the floor, before unpicking her golden coins from the web.

“Well, at least now we _know_ they’re poisoned.”

Flowey tutted, watching her saunter out of the room. Once she was out of sight, he gave a concerned glance back to the bitten donut lying abandoned on the floor. A metallic grey leaked onto the red stone.

~oOo~

Chara stared out across the buildings. They were currently on some sort of balcony, overlooking many houses and shops, all built within the massive cavern. It looked pretty… impressive. Toriel had never taken her to this part of the Ruins. There really _was_ a small civilisation living down here.

Chara let loose a low whistle.

“Okay… this is pretty awesome.”

Flowey shook his head, smiling to himself. His voice lowered as he looked out across the houses.

“This is nothing… Wait until you see Waterfall.”

Chara breathed out. “I want to go there.”

Flowey paused, looking up at the girl. There was no grin on her face, but the spark hadn’t left her eyes.

“…What, now?”

“No, well- Whenever we can.” Chara’s hands hung loosely from her jeans pockets and her eyes wandered across the rooftops. “But I definitely wanna see it.”

“Well… to get there, we’d need to exit the Ruins.” Flowey started carefully.

Chara turned to him. “So where’s the exit then?”

“Uh…” Flowey looked down, and Chara raised an eyebrow at him. “…Well… it’s in Toriel’s house.”

Chara paused. “Ah.” She turned around on her heel and started meandering away from the buildings. “Now _that_ might be a problem. But it’s fine, I’ll figure out a way around-”

She heard a small clatter. Chara stopped and looked down, spying something metallic and sharp at her feet. She knelt down, picking up the object, and Flowey appeared at her  
side.

A plastic knife.

He regareded it cautiously. “Could be useful…”

Chara gave him a look. “For what? Stabbing people?” She smirked, shaking her head. “That’s not exactly how I roll, Flowey.”

“You don’t have to attack people, but at least have it for self-defence. You could probably convince a few to back down from a fight, if you used it right…”

Chara pursed her lips, weighing the object in her hand. She curled her fingers around it. The handle fit nicely in her palm.

The knife clattered to the floor.

Chara stood up, and her hands found their way back to her pockets.

“Nah, I think I’m good.” Flowey watched her walk away from the buildings. Her voice was quieter than usual. “I think I’d rather die than wield that against anyone…”


	8. And Cinnamon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I took so long to post this! I needed to have the last four chapters proof-read before I could post them. (Also, I'm gonna try and pace myself in terms of posting from now on, so I probably won't be doing one chapter a day as I'd planned, but I'll still try to make them regular.)

Chara and Flowey had both positioned themselves directly in front of Toriel’s door. Chara’s boots were surrounded by red leaves, and they crinkled as her feet shuffled. She could already smell the cinnamon pie. She glanced down to the flower. His stem trembled, and he looked up at her with a face that suggested she was about to walk head first into a tornado.

Chara rolled her eyes. She kept her voice as level as she could manage.

“Calm down. I’ve dealt with Toriel before, I know what to do.”

He sighed deeply. “I won’t be able to follow you. The only soil in that house is in the plant pots, and if she spots me…”

“I know, I know. You can’t be there all the time. I’ll be _fine_ , Flowey, don’t worry. Besides, if anything goes wrong, I’ll just meet you back at the cheese-table, won’t I?”

She offered him a grin, but his solemn eyes bore into her, and it faltered.

“Don’t purposefully get yourself into trouble, Chara. We still don’t understand the resets, you can’t take them for granted.”

Chara raised both her eyebrows. “What, _me?_ Purposefully get into trouble?” She gave him an impish smile. “Now whatever gave you that idea?”

His expression didn’t change. “I’m being serious.”

“Look. I promise I won’t jump in front of a fireball again, okay? That was _one time_ , now calm down. I’ll be fine.”

The flower didn’t look convinced. Chara rolled her shoulders, and raised her fist to the wood.

She knocked three times, loud and slow.

Flowey glanced across at the windows, floral patterns drawn across them to block out the world of red. They could hear shuffling and thuds from inside, and then the door clicked.

Chara straightened. The door was cracked open an inch, and a single, musty yellow eye peeked out.

Chara’s face brightened in a smile.

“Hi! I’m uh, new here? I was wondering if you could-”

The door flung open. Chara was quickly enveloped in a mixture of scratchy black fabric and matted fur as she felt crushing arms cling around her.

“A human?! Oh goodness, my child, how did you get here?! Are you injured?! Did any monsters hurt you?!”

Chara didn’t have time to unpick herself from the hug before she was pushed in through the doorway.

Flowey popped up through the ground just in time to have the door slammed in his face.

He sighed out, closing his eyes to try and calm the magic buzzing around his soul. He could hear Chara talking from inside the house.

He only hoped she didn’t take long.

~oOo~

She had another plate shoved into her hands.

“This one is blueberries and snails! I hope you enjoy it, dearie, it’s little bit of experimentation on my part!”

Chara smiled through grimaced teeth, and carefully pushed aside the other plates on the counter to make room for the newest edition.

“That’s… really nice of you, Toriel. I’ll keep it for later, yeah? Don’t wanna spoil my appetite for dinner! …or… some other shit like that- _Anyway_ , I wanted to ask you a question.”

Toriel turned around from her place by the oven, where the fourth pie of the day was cooking. “Yes, my dearest child?”

Chara had to stop herself from cringing. ‘Dearest child?’ Not even her own mum called her that.

“So, you know how I’m a… pretty curious person.”

Toriel smiled, and there was twinkle in her eyes that reminded Chara of the look a mother wore when she heard her child speak for the first time. She turned back to the counter, and cracked another egg into the bowl.

“Why of course, dear. It’s one of your many special traits.”

Chara forced a smile on her face.

“Yeah, well… I was wondering if… you would let me explore a little more?”

Toriel paused. “More, dear? What could you possibly mean?”

Chara pursed her lips. Being delicate wasn’t her strong point. But she’d have to give it a go…

“Well… you know… I’ve been all over the Ruins. I know every corner of it. And I took a good look around your house. I was kind of hoping I could move on?”

The whisk dropped to the floor.

“Oh…” Her voice was stooped, dejected. Chara’s eyes darted from the whisk to the woman’s hands. They were limp. “I see…”

“Ah- Nothing personal, don’t worry about it. It’s just I’m- uh. Well, y’know-”

“No. I understand.” The bowl was gently placed down on the counter. “I am not enough.”

Chara’s eyes widened. _Oh shit._

“ _No!_ No, that’s not what I’m getting at, _at all-_ ”

Toriel whipped around, eyes ablaze. “I am _never enough!_ ”

Fire was thrown across the room. Chara managed to duck into the corridor, the wall gaining black scorch marks where she previously stood.

She poked her head around. “Look, if you just _tell me_ where the exit is, I can be out of your hair-!”

“ _Everything_ I have done for you!” The words tore out of the woman’s throat, and the pure volume of it pierced Chara’s ears. “Everything I was willing to do!” More fire was hurled towards her. She jumped behind the wall again.

“It’s not that I’m not _grateful_ ,” Chara began, her back against the wall, her lungs burning with the smoke that was gathering at the ceiling. “It’s just that I really, _really_ want to get out of here!”

Another spurt of fire licked its way around the wall’s edge, and Chara had to scramble back down the corridor, her shoes treding carpet as she looked up to see the enraged goat-demon bringing up her arms. Fire magic flew around her hands, spitting and crackling.

“You’re all the same. You always leave me alone. _Always!_ ”

Chara dived behind the chair just in time to only have her leg singed by the flames. She grit her teeth. It hadn’t caught fire, but there was a burning sensation on her skin that she’d never felt before.

More flames came shooting past, and Chara stumbled to her feet and held up her hands.

“Whoa, look, calm down, _please_.”

Toriel’s hands remained raised, but the magic stayed at her fingertips. Her eyes burned of a ferocious red.

“Okay, just- Listen, please. I am grateful, honestly. I appreciate all you’ve done for me. But I can’t stay here forever, can I? I need to become independent at some point, right?”

Chara offered her a hopeful smile.

Toriel snarled.

Her fangs became ever more evident, and Chara felt her heart thump in her chest.

“You do not understand. You cannot understand. _You will not leave!_ ”

Chara’s eyes widened as the fireball enveloped her all too fast.

_~8 Deaths: 4 via Fireball, 4 via Other ~_

She opened her eyes to the blood-red ceiling, and glanced over to see a familiar table, which she knew had a single piece of cheese atop of it.

“Okay, note to self. Don’t try _that_ again.”

She groaned as she pushed herself up onto her arms, and Flowey was by her side in an instant.

“What did you _do?_ I could hear the shouting from outside…”

Chara huffed. “Tried to reason with her.” She got onto her knees, and noticed the flower giving her a flat look. “What? It was worth a shot.”

Flowey sighed out. “Sometimes, I think you have higher expectations for the people of this world than they do for themselves.”

Chara pushed herself to her feet. “Probably. Now c’mon! I have a ghost to re-encounter.”


	9. You’ll Get It Right Eventually

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops. I went on holiday and wound up not posting for the entire time I was away. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

_~10 Deaths: 6 via Fireball, 4 via Other~_

Flowey waited just below the open window, up against the crimson-brick wall. The curtains were still drawn, but Chara had managed to open the window enough for him to listen in.

“S’up, Toriel!” He heard Chara’s voice from inside. “You know, I was just wondering. There’s gotta be a door to the outside world here, right?”

There was a pause, and Flowey found himself holding his breath.

“…I mean, I’m not thinking of going anywhere _near_ it, obviously. I just- I just want to know so I can stay _away_ from it. You know, just in case some monster comes in and tries to kill me. Wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we? So- Could you tell me where-?”

Flowey heard a clatter of what sounded like ceramic hitting wood, and then the familiar noise of crackling fire. When he looked up, he could see orange light flickering across the curtains.

“ _Whoa_ , okay, calm down there-”

Flowey’s vision went black.

~Five Timelines Earlier~

“So, you’re saying that your magic allows you to tunnel through rock, but not floorboards.”

She barely managed to supress her grin as Flowey glared up at her.

“Rock is recognised as part of the ground. Floorboarding is not. So no. I can’t burrow through floorboards.”

Chara snorted. “That is so incredibly dumb.”

“Well I’m sorry if I’m not all-powerful across time and space, like you.”

Chara smiled to herself. “I wouldn’t say all-powerful. More like, ‘so incredibly awesome that the universe can’t handle it’ powerful.”

Flowey had to stop the smile from spreading across his face.

“You get cockier with every reset.” He observed flatly.

The smile shimmered in her eyes. “Now that I can agree with.”

~oOo~

This was their fifth try.

“Yo, Toriel! How d’you exit the Ruins?”

Chara was becoming less and less concerned with cushioning the blow.

Flowey heard more tell-tale crackling, and a few short bursts of magic, and then the heat was on his petals again as Chara rounded the corner into the living room.

She had finally managed to up-root one of the flowers in Toriel’s many flowerpots, and he had taken its place. He still wasn’t entirely sure if he preferred being able to see what was going on, or being by the window.

Chara dive-bombed behind the chair, and Toriel threw another few fireballs in her direction. Her eyes blazed with uncontrollable fury, and it made his stem shiver. He never thought he would see that look in her eyes. Especially not to this extent.

He flinched as another fireball was thrown across the room, this time catching light to the carpet, giving Chara enough time to scramble away before Toriel’s magic built up again.

Chara skidded to a halt beside him, her hair frayed and eyeshadow smudged down her cheeks.

“Okay. I don’t think this is working.” She breathed shakily.

Flowey couldn’t keep the concern out of his eyes.

“Chara- Are you okay?”

She gave him a look, then sighed, arms resting on her legs. “I’m gonna reset. Be back in two ticks.”

Flowey felt his vision begin to blackout, all of Toriel’s screeching blending into a fuzzy mess.

Then he was snapped back into reality.

Chara gasped in smoke. She suppressed the coughs that crawled out of her throat. She held up her hands and peered through the flames.

“ _What_ did you just say?”

Flowey turned to Toriel. She glared at Chara, her hands balled into fists so tightly they looked like they could shatter bone.

“You will never leave. I won’t let you. I’ll destroy the door-”

“Yeah, yeah, gotcha, more about the door, tell me about the door.”

“I’ll destroy it. I’ll lock up the basement. I’ll barricade the stairs. You’ll _never leave me_.”

Chara’s eyes darted towards the staircase before them, and then back up to Flowey. She stared at him.

A grin stretched across her face.

“Thanks, Toriel." Her eyes didn’t leave his. “You’re a real help.”

The image of her grin remained imprinted in Flowey’s mind as the room faded to black and the heat fell away.


	10. Listen to Mother

_~12 Deaths: 8 via Fireball, 4 via Other~_

Chara leaned over the ghost and poked a finger into his form. His eyes snapped open. He blinked owlishly, staring at her. She waved a hand dismissively.

“Alright. Bugger off. I don’t wanna disturb you, but I gotta get through, now move it.”

The ghost disappeared with a perplexed look on his face. Chara strode onwards through the leaves.

“Flowey. I’ve got a plan.”

Soil rustled, and the flower appeared beside her. “If this is a plan, then what the hell were you doing before?”

Chara shrugged. “Improvising?”

Flowey glared at her.

She moved on before she could be lectured. “Either way, I know where I’m going now. The exit to the Ruins has to be down those stairs. When Toriel goes into the kitchen, I’ll sneak down them and be out before she even notices I’m gone, sound good?”

Flowey narrowed his gaze, glaring at the ground. “I’m not sure. It feels too easy.”

“Oh please – she’s a nutcase, remember? She’ll be too busy fussing over her pies to even notice I’m gone.”

~oOo~

Chara had never been more wrong about Toriel in her life.

She wasn’t a nutcase.

‘Nutcase’ was an _understatement_.

It had taken Chara six tries to get down the staircase without being ushered back up again. On the third, she’d put her weight into digging her heels in the floor, and she’d still been dragged. On the fourth she’d started shouting, Toriel being eerily silent. On the fifth try she’d broken out into a sprint. Toriel ran faster.

This was her sixth try.

She’d made it along the crimson-corridor all the way to the bend, and was finally rounding the corner when she heard the tell-tale sound of pounding footsteps down the staircase. She clutched the plantpot to her side. She could feel the tremours from the petals reverberate through to her arm.

“My child… you are trying my patience…”

Chara tensed. The ice in the woman’s voice made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

She paused just before the turn in the hallway, taking a deep breath and steeling her resolve.

She needed to leave the Ruins. Needed to get away from this woman. Something about her made knots form in the pit of Chara’s stomach.

“You know you can’t keep me here forever, right?” She called down the passageway, voice echoless among the old stained stone. “I’m gonna keep trying.”

Chara risked a glance over her shoulder. Toriel’s eyes weren’t red yet, but she could see them twitching.

A sickly smile stretched over the demon-goat’s face.

“You truly wish to leave so badly?”

Chara clenched her jaw and stood her ground. She held the pot tighter to her side.

The old woman sighed. Then she looked up, a snarl on her lips. “You stupid child. Do you not see?! You will be _killed_ if you go out there!”

Chara growled back. “I’d rather die than stay cooped up here for the rest of my life!”

She heard the flower gasp from her side. “ _Ch-Chara-!_ ”

Toriel’s eyes roared up in red.

Fire hurtled towards them.

Chara’s legs threw themselves into a run.

She skidded around the bend as the firebolt connected with the stone. Her feet sprinted. The door was there. She could hear pounding footsteps behind her. She felt the vibrations in the floor. Saw the light come shooting past her head. Felt the heat prickle at her skin.

Her feet stumbled and tripped but she kept running. The door was _right there_.

She landed against the blood-red wood, chest heaving.

Her hands tore them open.

A long, endless hallway stretched far before her, the red walls fading out into a black abyss.

Chara felt her heart sink to her stomach, and her breathing started to even out, her muscles going limp.

A paw slammed down on her shoulder.

She was thrown back. The pot slipped from her grasp. She tumbled to the floor and heard the clatter of pottery on stone.

Chara groaned, pushing hersrelf up on her forearms. Flowey’s pot was on its side, but it hadn’t cracked. He blinked profously, his stem drooped to the floor as he stared at the ceiling.

Chara breathed through her teeth. Her palms were grazed, her shoulder aching. She looked up to the doors, still flung open from her haste.

Toriel blocked the way.

Her eyes were potent red, fire raging up her arms.

Chara glared at her from the floor.

“Human.” The fire swarmed up her shoulders, engulfing her arms. “You do not understand.”

Chara crawled across the floor, one arm propping herself up as she set the flowerpot upright. She slowly moved to her knees, then pulled the pot in to her side. The flower hid behind her arm.

Toriel stared hard at her, refusing to look away. “I cannot allow you to leave the Ruins. I cannot allow you to die. The monsters-”

“How can you possibly _know_ that the people out there will try to kill me, huh?!” Chara rasped, gritting her teeth. “How can you _know_ that?! It’s not possible for _every_ monster to be bad! There’s gotta be _some_ good guys out there somewhere!”

Toriel’s voice was remorseless. “All the weak ones are killed.”

“Well – look. Toriel. _Please_. Just let me do this. Let me make my _own_ judgement about the monsters outside the Ruins. If I die, so _what?_ What’s it to you? I don’t know why this _matters_ to you so much.”

Toriel’s eyes narrowed. “It matters for reasons that you cannot possibly understand.”

Chara looked up at her. Her gaze was level, steady.

“I’m not giving up, Toriel. I’m going through those doors, no matter how long it takes.”

Toriel’s back straightened. She looked down, regarding the child.

Chara continued to glare up at her, not breaking eye contact. She could feel the shivers from Flowey through her jacket.

“Fine.”

Chara stopped. She blinked at Toriel, her mouth going slack.

Toriel kept her face schooled. “But first, you must prove to me that you are strong enough to survive out there.” Chara’s brows furrowed. Plastic clattered to the floor in front of her. “Prove to me that you are strong enough to defend yourself.”

Chara felt her grip on the pot tighten. Her knuckles went white. She stared at the knife.

Slowly, her gaze travelled up to Toriel.

The woman’s face was void of all emotion.

“No…”

“If you a strong enough to kill me, I will let you pass.”

“ _No!_ ”

Chara jumped to her feet. Her knuckles clenched, her own eyes burning now.

“I can’t- I’m not going to _kill you!_ ”

Toriel shook her head. “Then you will not survive out there.”

Chara gaped, her breath quickening.

“No, Toriel- I’m not a _killer_ , I can’t-”

“I know you can do it.” Chara felt her heart drop. “Now I can see it. I can see the determination in your soul. I know you are capable…”

_…yet reluctant, just like them._

Chara stared. She glimpsed behind Toriel, at the abyss down the hallway. Then her eyes wandered down to the plastic knife at her feet.

She picked it up.

Flowey watched her, wide eyed.

She gripped the handle, breathing in shaky, deep breaths.

Toriel’s smile twisted into one of utter chaos. Chara ignored it.

“Now my child. Fight me-”

The knife was flung down the opposite end of the corridor. It clattered to the floor just before the bend, far away from them both. Chara’s chest heaved, and she whirled back to Toriel.

“I’m _not_ fighting you.” A snarl started at the base of her throat. “I’m beginning to think that _you’re_ the person that  _doesn't understand_. I don’t kill. I don’t attack. I. Don’t. _Fight_. I’ll die a thousand times before I’m driven to something as sick and twisted as _that_.”

Torie’s gaze hardened. The smile dropped from her face. “So be it…”

Fire flared around the goat-demon’s arms.

Chara’s feet stayed glued to the ground, her eyes narrowed in a perpetural glare.

“Human. Here, it is kill or be killed. If you will not kill me…” Flowey shrunk back, his stem wilting, leaves quivering. Toriel’s fire rose up to lick the ceiling. “… _then I will KILL YOU._ ”


	11. Leaving the Ruins

‘I’m fucked, I’m fucked, I’m fucked, I’m fucked-’

These were the thoughts running through Chara’s head fifteen minutes ago. Now, however, she was focused.

She’d been boxed in. Toriel blocked the door. They were in a corridor. And going the other direction down the corridor would’ve practically been flinging a white flag in the goat’s face. Not to mention her opponent had magical fire spurting powers. She was like a fish being shot at in a barrel.

But as it turned out, Toriel only had so many moves. And they were all predictable as hell.

Chara would run to the left, Toriel would shoot fireballs at her, and, depending on whether she was aiming for the red heart now humming in her chest or some other mish-mash part of her body, she would dodge in a certain direction.

Aiming at her feet? She could jump high enough to avoid the fire. Her head? She ducked. Her soul? Dive bomb to the side. Easy.

Then sometimes, if she was too close, Toriel would make a swipe for her, trying to catch her arm with the fire ravaging across her fur. Once or twice flames had caught her sleeve, but she’d patted it out before it had a chance to grow or spread. This only infuriated the goat further.

True, at the beginning of the ‘fight’ she’d been flapping around like a headless chicken, but then she’d noticed the pattern to Toriel’s attacks, how they repeated in succession depending on the circumstances. Her feet were slowly memorising the paths needed to dodge each one.

Toriel kept on barking at her. Telling her to fight, to go back there and pick up the knife and defend herself. Chara refused. Chara always refused.

It was more out of proving a point now than any moral code.

She wasn’t going to fight.

She hadn’t been killed in this corridor yet. Even if she was killed, she would come back, and she’d try again.

And again.

And again.

She didn’t care how long it took. She wanted to see the world outside the Ruins.

But she wasn’t picking up that knife.

Toriel wasn’t going to control her.

Flowey had been squeaking out advice every now and then, like ‘turn away so the fireball doesn’t hit your chest’ or ‘don’t run _away_ from it, run _under_ it’. But then Toriel had started shooting fire bolts at _him_ and he’d quickly disappeared into the soil of the plant pot.

Chara had taken the diversion to her advantage and tried run past the goat demon, and though Toriel had stepped in her way, Chara had back-pedalled with a smirk written plain across her face.

“Better not get distracted, Tori. Be awful if I were to slip past you, wouldn’t it?”

From that point on, no matter how loud Flowey yelled out to her, Toriel’s attention remained glued to Chara.

Toriel wasn’t going to risk trying to hit him again. Flowey was safe.

But now, she couldn’t slip past Toriel. She’d have to figure out another way around fighting her.

After a while, Chara’s legs started to ache and the wind was getting knocked out of her lungs. The humming of her soul was getting harder to ignore. It was a strange sensation. She could feel the heart fluctuating, wilting, but at the same time the buzzing was stronger than she’d ever felt it.

Flowey kept glancing at the goat demon. Toriel stood tall, her face aloof.

She swung more fireballs in Chara’s direction. Her feet moved without her brain even having to think about it.

“Human. There is no other way to end this. Either you kill me, or I kill you.”

Chara breathed heavily, leaning up after having ducked her head. “Oh my fucking god, not this again…”

Toriel’s eyes narrowed. “Human. _There is no other way._ ”

Chara whirled to the side, narrowly avoiding fireballs aimed at her chest.

Her head snapped to the goat-woman.

“Of course there’s another way, there’s _always_ another way!”

Toriel’s arm stopped moments before she flung it forward, her brows creased.

Chara threw her hands in the air. “What- You don’t think these kind of fights are just black and white, do you?! You fight or you flee or you die?! No! There’s more to it than that!”

Flowey stared, his eyes bugging out. His gaze flicked back and forth between the goat and the human.

Toriel snarled. “What other options do you have?!”

“I have the option of sitting here and being stubborn until you give in!” Chara yelled. Toriel’s fists clenched. “Because if I _never_ give in, then I know for a fact that you will eventually! It’s my stubbornness against yours! I have no control over whether or not you let me leave, but I have control over whether or not I let you _boss me around_. I’m not gonna fight just because you tell me to-!”

“No…” Her voice was eerily calm.

Toriel’s arms rised and she threw another attack at Chara. The girl’s feet instinctively went into action, though she noticed, the fireballs probably wouldn’t have hit her anyway.

“You are not stubborn, Chara.” Flowey looked over to the woman, his breath held. “You are determined…”

Chara gave the goat-demon an odd look.

“Okay, interesting choice of wording…”

“Your red soul. It’s primary essence is determination. Naturally, you would be strong-willed for something you feel so strongly about.”

Her arms had lowered to her sides, her face bare.

Chara peered at her. This… was new.

“Okay. So, what does that mean to you?”

Toriel raised both hands, each with a fireball building and swirling in her palm.

Her eyes narrowed. “It means _nothing_.”

Chara jumped out of the way of the fireballs, but they both missed her by a mile.

Toriel roared out in frustration and more attacks kept coming, faster and faster, fire flying in every direction. But they all avoided Chara.

She stood with her feet spread out at shoulder length apart, watching the flames go sailing over her head, dash by her arms, through her legs – never once touching her body. Her eyes landed on Toriel. She was summoning fire bolts faster than Chara could’ve dodged any day. But they were all missing her. And it wasn’t some sort of shield – Toriel wasn’t _aiming_ at her.

Slowly, the old woman’s shoulders began to slump, the fire fizzling out into tiny sparks that danced around the air. She breathed heavily, her frenzied eyes glued to the ground. The red slowly leaked out of them.

Chara looked over to Flowey. His gaze trailed over Toriel’s hunched form, her hands and legs shaking.

A bitter chuckle broke the silence, and Toriel lookd up, her eyes a musty yellow.

“Pathetic…” Toriel’s shoulders trembled. A few gasps escaped her throat. Her gaze locked with Chara’s. “I cannot stop even a single child…”

Chara felt her shoulders relax. She eyed the old woman. “…You were holding back from the beginning, weren’t you?” The trembling lessened. Chara chose her words carefully. “You probably could’ve killed me in a few hits. But you didn’t. ‘Cause you wanted to see if you could get me to fight you back.”

Toriel’s breathing evened out. Slowly, she pushed herself up with her hands.

“You are too much like them…” Chara stopped. Her brows creased. Toriel didn’t smile, per se. It was more of a grimace than anything. “I… cannot do it. You were right, young one. My resolve is… not enough.”

Toriel’s eyes connected with hers, and Chara felt ice travel down her spine.

“If you truly hate me so much, if you truly wish to leave this place… I cannot stop you.”

Numbly, Toriel stepped away from the doorway.

Chara gaped. “You… you’re legit _letting me go?_ ”

Toriel glanced up, her eyes hopeful. “Unless you wish to stay-?”

Chara held up her hands. “No, no, sorry, I- Uh, yeah. I’m going.” She cracked a small grin. “Thanks? For not killing me, I guess.”

Toriel looked away.

Chara quickly went to pick up the plant pot, Flowey gazing at the old woman.

Chara furrowed her brows, looking down at the flower. He caught her staring, then glanced away quickly, before burying his face in her leather jacket. She bit her lip, shifting the pot into one arm and coughing into the other.

“Look, you know, Toriel… I could, like, visit you or something if you’re lonely, s’long as you let me leave again-”

Toriel chuckled mirthlessly. “You will die the moment you step out the door. You won’t be returning.”

Chara blinked. She sighed out.

Yep. Still crazy.

“Right. Well… thanks anyway. And don’t beat yourself up too much over this, yeah?”

Toriel gave no response.

“Like I said, out of an entire world of killers, there’s gotta be _some_ good monsters out there.” Toriel could hear the smile in her voice. “You were just one of the unlucky ones.”

Then Chara turned away, and the doors to the Ruins were closed behind her.

Toriel let out a quiet sigh.

That unsettling, wide-eyed stare from the human’s new flower friend would haunt her, she was sure. She couldn’t place what, but there was something about it that made a horrible feeling twist in the pit of her stomach.

She shook her head to get rid of the mental image. She wouldn’t need to think about the girl and her flower any longer.

They wouldn’t be coming back.

~oOo~

The hallway looked like it could go on forever. There was still no sign of an exit in the darkness. Chara had her phone out, the flashlight on and illuminating the red of the walls. The flowerpot was clutched tightly in her arm.

“I can’t believe I actually got out of that alive in one try…” She chuckled. “Guess I’m getting better at this whole ‘not dying too much’ thing, huh?”

There was no response.

“Flowey?”

Only silence.

She tutted and pointed the phone directly at his petals.

Flowey gave a startled yelp at the sudden light and then screwed his eyes closed.

“Chara! That _hurts!_ ”

She snorted, pointing the phone at the wall again. “Calm down, mate. I thought flowers were meant to like light.”

He huffed. “Not many flowers have _eyes_.”

She chuckled. “Fine, touché. You were completely out of it there though, had to get your attention somehow.”

He sighed. “Sorry…”

She paused walking. “Hey, are… you okay? You looked kinda… I dunno, freaked the fuck out back there. I wasn’t gonna let her hurt you, you know that.”

He mumbled a groan. “No, I’m fine, don’t worry…”

“…Then what is it?”

“Chara-”

“Oi. No. C’mon, tell me.”

She pointed the phone at the wall behind him so she could see his face. He winced lightly and looked down, avoiding her gaze.

She started when she noticed water beginning to build in his eyes.

The phone was snapped off and in her pocket within seconds.

“Hey, look- Calm down, it’s over now, alright?” She held the pot closer and his head buried into her top, underneath her jacket. “You’re fine, okay? We’re both fine.”

“It-It-It was just s-scary, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” She laughed lightly. “I was scared out of my mind too. But we got through it. Now it’s over, we don’t ever have to go back there, alright?”

He shook his head lightly.

She stood there for a moment, her mouth dry. Her mind blanked – she couldn’t think of anything else to say. She could feel warm water staining her shirt and the trembling in his petals. She stood stock still, biting her lip. The fuck do you say to console a _crying flower?_

Gingerly, one of her fingers went to lightly stroke one of his petals. He made no protest at the contact, so she kept it up. Slowly the trembling in his petals died down, and he brought himself out from under her jacket.

“Hey… you okay now?”

He nodded lightly. “Let’s just… keep going.”

Wordlessly, she took out her phone and turned on the flashlight, keeping it pointed ahead of them. The light disappeared into the darkness, the walls and floors illuminated red once again. She kept walking.

In the black abyss of the hallway, both the flower and the girl failed to notice the cracks and chips in the stone of the ceiling where lilac rock broke through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes part one! Yay!  
> I'm not 100% happy with the last few chapters, but I think they're good enough for now. :3
> 
> Part Two: COMING SOON


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